Coachella Valley: Safe Drinking Water Coming Soon?

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The Desert Sun – CVWD pushes for safe water in disadvantaged communities

Raw sewage at a trailer park in Mecca.

…CVWD serves about 109,000 residential and business customers, primarily in Riverside County, and estimates that about 10,000 Coachella Valley residents relying on private wells for water are not drinking water that is up to state code. The majority of these people live in the east valley, in historically underprivileged areas such as Mecca and Thermal, where almost half the population lives under the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census. In addition to the estimated hundreds of private wells and small systems, two public water systems—Saint Anthony Trailer Park in Mecca and Oasis Gardens Water Co. in Thermal—are both out of compliance due to higher-than-permitted levels of arsenic in the water, according to data published by the State Water Resources Control Board…